Politics
Chicago Ald. Jessie Fuentes Filing Federal Claim After Being Handcuffed by Federal Agents
Ald. Jessie Fuentes is put into handcuffs by ICE agents while asking about a warrant for a detained man on Oct. 3, 2025. (Credit: 26th Ward Office)
Chicago Ald. Jessie Fuentes is filing a federal claim and seeking damages, weeks after an immigration agent briefly handcuffed and detained her during a confrontation inside a Humboldt Park hospital.
Attorneys for Fuentes on Tuesday said the 26th Ward alderperson will make the filing under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows those who have been injured “by the negligent or wrongful act of a federal government employee acting within the scope of his or her employment” to seek monetary damages.
“It is indeed a frightening time, when unidentified federal agents shove, grab, handcuff, and detain an elected official in the exercise of her duties,” Jan Susler, an attorney with the People’s Law Office who represents Fuentes, said in a statement. “Ald. Fuentes is demonstrating the importance of standing up for herself, her community, and her constituency, holding accountable those who, in their anonymity, wreak terror and havoc.”
The incident occurred on Oct. 3, when Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents sought to detain a man inside Humboldt Park Health who had been injured while allegedly being chased by the agents.
Fuentes then arrived at the hospital, which is in her ward, and confronted the agents.
In a video posted to her social media pages, Fuentes can be seen inside the hospital telling a male ICE agent “We have constitutional rights,” as the agent repeatedly states “No” and instructs her to leave the area.
“I am gonna arrest you if you do not leave,” the agent tells Fuentes in the video.
When Fuentes begins to respond, the agent grabs her and places her into handcuffs. She then asks if the agent has a “signed judicial warrant” for a man being treated in the hospital and states that she never touched the agent.
He replies that Fuentes was being arrested for “impeding” and she is led away by a second agent. Fuentes said she was then taken outside and released from the handcuffs.
Her attorneys claimed ICE “spread fear and hysteria” through their actions and have engaged in “unlawful force and violence” against Fuentes, the local community and their immigrant neighbors.
“Federal agents have been deployed to our city in an effort to create chaos, violate individuals’ constitutional rights, and unjustly separate families,” Fuentes and her attorneys said. “Federal agents are not above the law, and we must hold them accountable.”
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